1 . If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal (夜间活动的) species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal (白天的) creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don’t think of ourselves as diurnal beings. Yet it’s the only way to explain what we’ve done to the night: We’ve engineered it to receive us by filling _______ with light.

The benefits of this kind of engineering come with consequences — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. III-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and completely changes the light levels — and light rhythms — to which many forms of life, including, ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect or life is affected .

In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze (霾) that mirrors our fear of the dark. We’ve grown so used to this orange haze that the original glory of an unlit night — dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadow on Earth, is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost.

We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further form the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet (磁铁). The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms. Migrating at night, birds tend to collide with brightly lit tall buildings.

Frogs living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times righter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behavior out of joint including most other creatures ,we do need darkness .Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.

Living in a glare of our making, we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage — the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night .In a very real sense light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way — the edge of our galaxy arching overhead.

1. According to the passage, human being          .

A．prefer to live in the darkness

B．are used to living in the day light

C．were curious about the midnight world

D．had to stay at home with the light of the moon

2. What does “it” (Paragraph 1) most probably refer to?

A．The night.	B．The moon.
C．The sky.	D．The planet.

3. The writer mentions birds and frogs to             .

A．provide examples of animal protection

B．show how light pollution affects animals

C．compare the living habits of both species

D．explain why the number of certain species has declined

4. It is implied in the last paragraph that             .

A．light pollution dose harm to the eyesight of animals

B．light pollution has destroyed some of the world heritages

C．human beings cannot go to the outer space

D．human beings should reflect on their position in the universe

2 . Most Beautiful of All

    1     Autumn was in the air. Rich, pleasant reds, painted by nature’s hand, were coloring some of the trees. On the ground a carpet of dry leaves had begun to form along the path.     2     High in the sky we noticed a V-shaped flock of birds heading south for the winter. As we walked along, I smiled. Beauty was all around us. It felt so good to be out in nature. I felt blessed to be watching nature’s glorious creation at its best.

    3     She was an elderly lady with gray hair. She wore old jeans and work boots. Her sweater was worn out in places. She was carrying a trash bag in one hand and a pointed stick with a nail driven through it in the other. As she slowly made her way towards us, she stopped to jab (刺) a piece of trash that she had seen on the ground with her stick.     4     When we met she smiled and said hello to us. Her teeth were cracked and worn, but her voice was as youthful as I had heard in many a day. We talked for a bit and I thanked her for making our nature more beautiful with her work. She smiled again and said, “I just do what I can before continuing down the path.”

    5     May we all have as lovely a life as her.

A．They smelled wonderful and crunched (发出碎裂声) under our feet as we walked along.

B．Then, she approached and asked us whether we had any trash.

C．I decided to take my sons for a walk the other day.

D．As is often the case, we are too busy to find the beauty of nature.

E．As we turned a corner along the walking trail, I noticed a woman slowly making her way towards us.

F．Of all the things I saw that day, she was the most beautiful.

G．Then, quickly and neatly, she placed it in the trash bag.

3 . Around the world there is an increase in the demand for reforestation. This is because the consumption of the forests has affected not only the animals living in the area but also the people. And reforestation is about the rebuilding of the forests that have been severely destroyed. It can offer a lot of benefits when the recreation is successful.

    1    This includes collecting seedlings (幼苗) that are native in the area to make sure that there is a natural reconstruction of the area. Some additional trees which are not native in the area also need to be planted.     2    The importance of having multiple species of trees is considered to make sure that the needs of other species that will live and grow in the area are met.

Destroying a forest is easy but rebuilding it is really hard.     3    The plan must include accurate spacing on plants and trees. This is to ensure that they won’t cover each other while they grow.     4    

The forest greatly helps in the reduction of the air pollution. Trees are responsible for the production of oxygen and absorption of carbon dioxide.    5    It is there for a reason just like everyone else on this planet.

There cannot be a better way to restore the balance of nature than to increase the forest area. We must remember that the forest is a natural habitat of wide variety of animals and plants. In this manner, there is no substitute for reforestation.

A．And global warming will speed up the destruction of forests.

B．Keep in mind that you can’t just plant the seedlings anywhere.

C．Recreations won’t work until all these details have been considered.

D．So a good plan is needed to make the reforestation a successful one.

E．The forest also protects us from typhoons and other natural disasters.

F．There are many things to be done when it comes to this type of effort.

G．It is important to make sure that they are suited to the climate and the type of soil.

4 . Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment. “We didn’t know at that time there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it,” says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.

But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement .Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many， many times,” says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first. According to US government reports, emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons .The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9. Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with, the world is a safer and healthier place. A kind of “Green thinking” has become part of practices.

Great improvement has been achieved. In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs; today in 1995 there are about 6,600. Advanced lights, motors, and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution.

Twenty –five years ago, there were hardly any education programs for environment. Today, it’s hard to find a public school, university, or law school that does not have such a kind of program. “Until we do that, nothing else will change!” says Bruce Anderson.

1. According to Anderson, before 1970, Americans had little idea about ___.

A．the social movement	B．recycling techniques
C．environmental problems	D．the importance of Earth Day

2. Where does the support for environmental protection mainly come from?

A．The grass –roots level.	B．The business circle.
C．Government officials.	D．University professors.

3. What have Americans achieved in environmental protection?

A．They have cut car emissions to the lowest.

B．They have settled their environmental problems.

C．They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities.

D．They have reduced pollution through effective measures.

4. What is especially important for environmental protection according to the last paragraph?

A．Education.	B．Planning
C．Green living	D．CO reduction

5 . Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need.
We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.   The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard. Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place.
Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example. But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us.
We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.
1. The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show _______.

A．the tendency of cutting household waste

B．the increase of packaging recycling

C．the rapid growth of super markets

D．the fact of packaging overuse

2. According to the text, recycling ______.

A．helps control the greenhouse effect

B．means burning packaging for energy

C．is the solution to gas shortage

D．leads to a waste of land

3. What can be inferred from Paragraph 4?

A．Unpackaged products are of bad quality.

B．Supermarkets care more about packaging.

C．It is improper to judge quality by packaging.

D．Other products are better packaged than food.

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Fighting wastefulness is difficult.

B．Needless material is mostly recycled.

C．People like collecting recyclable waste.

D．The author is proud of their consumer culture.

6 . To prevent the deserts coming near, China has planted billions of trees---to replace destroyed forests and as barriers against the sand. This isn’t a cure, though, say experts, as thirsty trees can make the problem worse by taking in groundwater.
“Planting trees is one way, but it isn’t that simple. It doesn’t solve the basic issue of water resources,” says Wu Bo, a professor. “We need to calculate how much water the trees will absorb, or else it could have a negative effect.”
Villagers in Zhengxin have taken on this challenge, with limited success. When the irrigation channels began to run dry, Lu Xianglin switched from wheat to cotton on his land. He also planted trees to protect his fields from sandstorms. He says he still gets good yields（产量） using flood irrigation and earns a good income for his family.
Other farmers haven’t stuck it out（坚持到底）: about one in three have left Zhengxin in the past 10 years after their wheat crops died. Young people who can find jobs in the towns rarely return.
Last week, Mr Lu joined the other men in his village on a government-arranged trip to see the land that has been set aside for their relocation, nearly 40 miles to the south. The next day, he was back, shaking his head at the plan. The idea of uprooting his family troubles him, as does the idea of giving up the land that fed his forefathers. He prefers to stay and keep up the fight.
“With enough water, this problem can be solved,” Lu says. “We can plant trees and grass, and they will grow bigger. That will stop the desert.”
Experts say that farmers could switch to drip irrigation （滴灌）to lessen their water intake for growing crops. Elsewhere in the region, farmers have built brick greenhouses as part of a plan to grow vegetables using less water. Roadside signs urge farmers to “Save Water, Protect the Environment”.
1. The negative effect of planting trees in deserts is that __________.

A．it can make groundwater become less

B．it can prevent the sand moving freely

C．it can stop crops growing well

D．it can get the soil to become poor

2. Why did Mr. Lu NOT accept the idea of relocation?

A．Because the plan of relocation will cost him much money.

B．Because his family had trouble moving away.

C．Because he was reluctant to give up his land.

D．Because he would rather stay than fight against the deserts.

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．The deserts drive more and more people to leave their homes for their lives.

B．People have no means to fight against the land becoming desert.

C．Water is the biggest barrier for people to stop the desert.

D．Planting trees cannot solve the problem of desertification of farmland.

4. What advice is given by experts to save water?

A．To plant more trees.

B．To build greenhouses.

C．To change crops.

D．To use drip irrigation.

7 . 阅读理解（二）
阅读下面短文，简要回答所给问题。
The first Earth Day was in 1970. People were beginning to worry about what we were doing to our environment. So they set up Earth Day to tell everyone about their worries.
In 2007 organizers over 150 countries planned over 4,000 big events. But Earth Day is not just about marches(游行) and big events. In the week around Earth Day (22 April) there were many thousands of smaller, local events. These events dealt with environmental problems in the neighborhood. The World Wide Fund for Nature made a list of 5 things that each person could do to save the environment.
*Don't leave the tap running.
*Turn off lights when you leave a room.
*Turn off your computer every night.
*Wash your clothes, and yourself, in warm or cold water, not hot water.
*Dishwashers use as little water as possible. If we all do at least 20 of these all the time, we can make a big difference.
1. What is the purpose for people to set up Earth Day?
2. When is Earth Day?
3. What should people do when the water keeps running from a tap?
4. Does the word “dishwashers” mean “machines for washing dishes”?
5. Besides the five, what else can you do to save our environment? (One example is OK.)

8 . I take the train to work every morning from a train station near my house. I can get to the station quite __________ because there is a shortcut(捷径) to the station. But in the summer, it can get quite smelly because of all the __________．So I always try to __________ through it.Today I was trying to do so as usual __________ something made me stop for a moment.I saw the most beautiful __________ by an old woman walking in front of me with the help of a white __________．

She was short and __________ and had white hair. She was walking __________ as each step took some effort. I hadn’t specially noticed her __________ , until she stopped near a rubbish bin.

She slowly placed her walking stick __________ the rubbish bin.Then she leaned(倚靠) on it with her right hand. She bent down and __________ the rubbish. She clearly found it __________ and it took her a while. She __________ some rubbish with her left hand and slowly straightened(挺直) herself up again. All the while she used the rubbish bin to __________ herself. She threw the rubbish inside the bin and then __________ walking. It all took her great effort.

There’s so much rubbish and no one ever does __________ about it. I was moved to __________ this old woman make such a great effort to keep even a small part of it __________ ! I haven’t been able to __________ thinking about that all day.

I want to follow her example. I’ve decided to pick up rubbish off the __________ if I see it from now on. I hope people will do the same as I do.

1.

A．hard

B．early

C．easily

D．late

2.

A．rubbish

B．boxes

C．bottles

D．paper

3.

A．walk

B．pass

C．go

D．rush

4.

A．so

B．until

C．when

D．because

5.

A．back

B．act

C．mark

D．colour

6.

A．bike

B．stick

C．dog

D．umbrella

7.

A．weak

B．rich

C．clever

D．sad

8.

A．quickly

B．happily

C．angrily

D．slowly

9.

A．at midnight

B．at noon

C．at last

D．at first

10.

A．in

B．around

C．against

D．under

11.

A．searched for

B．threw away

C．reached for

D．looked at

12.

A．unable

B．difficult

C．different

D．impossible

13.

A．picked up

B．dropped down

C．put in

D．lifted up

14.

A．warm

B．enjoy

C．support

D．hide

15.

A．continued

B．started

C．enjoyed

D．remembered

16.

A．something

B．anything

C．everything

D．nothing

17.

A．feel

B．see

C．have

D．let

18.

A．busy

B．beautiful

C．dirty

D．clean

19.

A．keep

B．stop

C．mind

D．regret

20.

A．wall

B．desk

C．ground

D．classroom

9 . With only about 1,000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone the animal and save these in a dangerous situation. That's a move similar to what a Texas A & M University researchers have been undertaking for the past five years in a project called "Noah's Ark".
Noah's Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos(胚胎), semen and DNA of these animals and storing them in liquid nitrogen. If certain species should become extinct, Dr. Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas A & M's College of Veterinary, Medicine, says there would be enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future.
It is estimated that as many as 2, 000 species of mammals, birds and reptiles will probably become extinct in over 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25 years. This week, Chinese scientists said they grew an embryo by introducing cells from a dead female panda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into a host animal. The entire procedure could take from three to five years to complete. "The nuclear transfer of one species to another is not easy, but the lack of available panda eggs could be a major problem," Kraemer believes. "They will probably have to do several hundred transfers to result in one pregnancy (having a baby). It takes a long time and it's difficult, but this could be groundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it is worth the effort," adds Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Project at Texas A&M, the first-ever attempt at cloning a dog.
"They are trying to do something that's never been done, and this is very similar to our work in Noah's Ark. We're both trying to save animals that face extinction. I certainly appreciate their effort and there's a lot we can learn from what they are attempting to do. The cooperation between us is very much needed."
1. The final aim of "Noah's Ark" project is to ___________.

A．make efforts to clone the endangered pandas

B．save endangered animals from dying out

C．collect DNA of endangered animals to study

D．transfer the nuclear of one animal to another

2. According to Professor Kraemer, ___________.

A．the long time lasting cloning research could be successful.

B．the eggs transfers immediately result in having a baby.

C．the lack of nuclear transfer could be a major problem to have new pandas.

D．if species should die out, basic building blocks would heal them.

3. The best title for the passage may be ________.

A．China's Success in Pandas Cloning

B．Helping Ways to Avoid Extinction

C．Exploring the Possibility to Clone Pandas

D．The Practice in Noah's Ark

4. From passage we know that ________.

A．Kraemer and his team have succeeded in cloning a panda

B．scientists try to implant a panda's egg into a rabbit

C．Kraemer will work with Chinese scientists in clone researches

D．about two thousand species are to die out in a century

10 . Energy goes from one plant or animal to another. A food chain shows how this energy moves. Each time an animal gets eaten, its energy is passed onto the animal that eats it. The food chain is very important because it keeps the balance of nature. If one part of the food chain disappears, it can affect all the other plants and animals. Any threat to the food chain is a threat to the environment’s biodiversit(生物多样性). The food chain helps keep animal populations in balance. However, if something happens to increase or decrease one of the links in the food chain, that balance is broken. If one animal becomes endangered, it puts all the animals above it at risk.
Some of the threats are natural, such as wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, floods and so on. But the biggest threats to the food chain come from you and me. These threats include overhunting, overfishing, logging, farming, development, pollution, etc. The food chain is endangered anywhere humans have had an effect on the natural environment.
A recent study shows that the overfishing of large sharks is damaging the food chain along the US Atlantic coast. Canadian and American scientists say sharks are being killed in great numbers for their meat and fins(鳍). Now, not enough sharks are around to eat the cownose(牛鼻) ray. The ray’s population has increased and they have eaten up the shellfish to the point where it has hurt commercial(商业的) fishing.
Many of us disturb the natural environment in our own backyards. It’s up to us to take care of the environment and try not to disrupt the natural food chain. If we don’t act responsibly, animals will start disappearing.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?

A．The food chain is not easy to be broken.

B．The energy of an animal usually disappears when it dies.

C．Increasing the links will not break the balance of nature.

D．Breaking the food chain is bad for the biodiversity of the environment.

2. The study mentioned in Paragraph 3 proves that            .

A．human activities can be a big threat to the food chain

B．we are all responsible for the breaking of the food chain

C．natural disasters are hard to break the food chain

D．hunting large sharks for meat is beneficial

3. We can infer that the writer wrote this passage mainly to           .

A．explain what the food chain is

B．tell us something interesting about Nature

C．suggest that we stop eating meat to save animals

D．suggest that we not disrupt the natural food chain